Jiang Chen met the Peacock Emperor's fervent gaze with nowhere to dodge, and simply offered a candid smile. "I could try, but I can't guarantee the odds of success. Moreover, the ingredients for this pill are exceedingly rare. Should the attempt fail, gathering them again would be next to impossible."
He neither denied it nor admitted it outright, leaving himself a measure of room in his words.
The Peacock Emperor sighed. "A genius! What a genius! Who would have thought that a place as blessed with great fortune as my Glazed King City would go all these years without producing a single genius of your caliber? Instead, it's the overlooked Myriad Phenomena Region that gave rise to someone like you. No matter how divine your teacher's methods may be, without your own extraordinary talent, it would all be meaningless. It is the combination of your teacher's heaven-defying abilities and your own innate brilliance, each illuminating the other, that has forged such a dazzling genius as you!"
In all of Glazed King City, among the countless young people, no one had ever received such lofty praise from the Peacock Emperor. This was no mere compliment — it was admiration straight from the heart.
Suddenly, the Peacock Emperor's gaze sharpened, as if he had made up his mind. "Young friend Jiang Chen, my proposal from earlier — I'd only said half of it. Now I feel there is no need to hesitate any longer. I wish to hand over the legacy of the Peacock Sacred Mountain to you in ten years' time."
"What?" Jiang Chen was visibly startled. "Ten years from now? Hand it over to me?"
"Indeed." The Peacock Emperor nodded. "You and I need not have a master-disciple relationship. All I ask is that you inherit my Peacock Sacred Mountain."
Jiang Chen was momentarily tongue-tied. "But… why?"
The Peacock Emperor's expression turned grave. "Great chaos approaches. The fortune of the Peacock Sacred Mountain determines the fortune of Glazed King City. The fortune of Glazed King City, in turn, may well determine the fortune of all of humanity. My entire life, I have been searching among countless people for someone bearing great fortune to inherit the Peacock Sacred Mountain. And you — you are the most brilliant pearl I have found among all living beings. I have a premonition that through you, the legacy of the Peacock Sacred Mountain can be passed down for eternity amid this chaos. No one else is capable of fulfilling this hope of mine."
Seeing the sincerity filling the Peacock Emperor's eyes, Jiang Chen understood that His Majesty the Emperor was not jesting with him.
In truth, Jiang Chen greatly admired the Peacock Emperor as well. After all, the Peacock Emperor possessed the Wisdom Eye of Myriad Heavens, capable of observing fortune. Even back when Jiang Chen had broken through beneath the Treasure Tree of Ambient Glow, none of the others had linked that event to him. Only the Peacock Emperor had positively connected him to that phenomenon — and with sound reasoning at that, not on a mere whim.
Jiang Chen also knew his own fortune. A person who could survive the Calamity of Myriad Heavens and be reborn into a new life — to say such a person possessed no fortune whatsoever was simply impossible. Rebirth was something only someone with the fortune of the Myriad Heavens could accomplish.
"Young friend, don't be in a rush to refuse. My Peacock Sacred Mountain does indeed need your fortune. But in truth, your path of rise also needs the Peacock Sacred Mountain. You should know — you have faced setbacks at every turn as you've come this far. Why is that?"
The words were sharp, and they left Jiang Chen speechless.
He knew the reason very well himself.
"There are many reasons, but it all comes down to one thing. Your origins were too humble, your starting point too low, and the powers backing you far too weak. Even the Danhang Palace — a fourth-rank sect, the pinnacle of the Myriad Phenomena Region — was utterly powerless to resist when the great catastrophe arrived."
The Peacock Emperor did not mince words in the slightest, and continued: "The survival rules of the martial world — you could call them gentle, and they are gentle; you could call them cruel, and they are cruel. But it all boils down to one thing: you must be strong. My Peacock Sacred Mountain, within the territory of humanity, may not be the most powerful — but it is certainly among the most powerful."
This was something even Jiang Chen could not deny.
"Therefore, the Peacock Sacred Mountain needs you, and you need the Peacock Sacred Mountain." The Peacock Emperor's gaze burned as he fixed it on Jiang Chen. "The moment I name you Young Master of the Peacock Sacred Mountain, whether it is the Unextinguishable Heavenly Capital or the Nine Suns Heavenly Sect — no matter how deeply they hate you, they will only be able to gnash their teeth in private. Not a single one of them would dare come to my Glazed King City and cause trouble."
The Peacock Emperor was not the sort of powerhouse who merely flaunted his strength. But precisely because of that, his words resonated all the more deeply with Jiang Chen's heart.
Yes — since stepping onto the world stage, Jiang Chen had been full of vigor and initiative, stirring up winds and clouds wherever he went. Yet in the face of truly overwhelming power, everything remained so fragile.
"Your Majesty's kindness fills this junior's heart with gratitude. But the burden of this legacy is so immense that I fear — should I prove unable to bear it, would that not betray Your Majesty's trust? Your Majesty must have seen how Dan Chi, the Palace Master of the Danhang Palace, also recognized this junior's potential in his day. And yet, in the end, the sect was shattered, and he himself has vanished without a trace. Although the Danhang Palace was not destroyed because of me, I was still a disciple of the Danhang Palace — and in the face of the greater tide of events, I was powerless to save the sect's fate."
The destruction of the Danhang Palace was truly not Jiang Chen's fault. It was because the Nine Suns Heavenly Sect and the Unextinguishable Heavenly Capital had long been laying plans in the Myriad Phenomena Region, all in pursuit of the whereabouts of the Flying Feather Great Emperor. Ever since the Flying Feather Great Emperor had fled into the Myriad Phenomena Region, that tragedy had almost been predestined for the entire region.
And yet, the destruction of the Danhang Palace still weighed on Jiang Chen with a measure of self-reproach. He felt that Palace Master Dan Chi had placed such great trust in him, and he had ultimately failed to turn the tide for the sect.
Even though he knew it was not his fault — after all, he had entered the Danhang Palace for too short a time, and there had been no chance for him to grow. A few years was simply not enough to go from a Yuan Realm cultivator to someone capable of opposing a first-rank sect.
Carrying this guilt, carrying this self-blame, Jiang Chen had still done everything he could for the Danhang Palace. He had searched for his fellow disciples, braving every risk from the Chiding Central Region all the way to Glazed King City.